As you approach the arch to enter the vicinity of the dining hall you will be confronted by a strange and overwhelming crude smell that worsens as your time as a BC student lengthens. Along with the unwelcome stench, comes the viscous squirrels and dangerous acorns falling from trees overhead amongst mounds of garbage to pass through. Usually, one has to be walking fast to try and get ahold of the door that some stranger is holding for you not realizing you are worn out from your weekly exercise of getting to your 8am class all the way in the top floor of college hall. But it isn't until you trudge up the 4 little steps, or run up the ramp the much preferred option, that you have officially entered hell. This is just the beginning of journeying into the dining hall located at Bloomfield College and surely one that will leave you hungry and unhappy. From the outside the cafeteria may look quaint, covered in bricks and set away in the corner of the campus, probably so no one has to be reminded how terrible it is. This dining hall, although such name suggests that one could actually dine there, is extremely monotonous and has more non edible varieties than hearty meals to offer young Bloomfield College students.
In order to receive a meal at Bloomfield College dining hall a student must swipe their oh so coveted ID card in order to be allowed access. After you have been granted entrance, you walk over to the buffet style food table to see what today's deadly options are. To begin with, the breakfast choices at the dining hall here at Bloomfield College are horribly minimalistic and often predictable. My personal favorite, the turkey bacon makes few and far appearances, leaving my appetite craving for a change. Moving along to the much awaited dinner options in the dining hall you are once again greeted by the monotonous food rotation, with such stars as tacos and some fried chicken or fish, I have yet to decide while smothered in sauce that looks like none other than upchuck. Usually for breakfast there are hockey puck biscuits, scrambled eggs, sausage, and french toast blocks or dried out pancakes. As you travel away from those options there is a variety of non changing condiments such as plain cream cheese, an unknown jam flavor, butter, and a combination of fruits. That’s if you're lucky enough to get there before it is just leftover melon and the sea of fruit water to drown your sorrows in the sheer monotony of the rotation of meals.
The process of swiping your ID is the most time consuming, because usually the kitchen staff member who is supposed to swipe my card is never there. And whenever I try to walk on by I always get caught and made to feel guilty for not waiting until my presence is noticed. This is one example of the unsatisfactory service apparent at the dining hall, with messy tables and empty napkin dispensers, inability to restock silverware, or a wait time of 30 min for a simple grilled cheese sandwich. Another area in need of much TLC is the cereal dispenser, with four cereal options from basic plain cheerios, not even honey, to mismarked labels it can make anyone who pays tuition frustrated. But at least the floors are kept miraculously cleaned, so much so that you have to ice skate your way throughout the dining hall due to how wet the floors are, which I must admit is quite entertaining to watch.
Furthermore, not to mention the struggle one must go through to disassemble the stack of styrofoam bowls or the hunt for clean plates; it would not require much effort to create an efficient ease of design for kitchen usage making students and staff happier. One notable option is the fry pans available and omelette station, but to operate requires cooking skills and can often be a long line so once again there are not enough resources, which leaves us students hungry. Lunch in the dining hall, is a place overfilled and fatally designed, often running out of silverware and likewise interesting food options. Making the dreadful wait for food that at it’s greatest is no more than decent not even worth entering the evil cafeteria, which is why a pop tart is my go to meal rather than an unknown meat concoction that is over grilled and under loved. Then comes the next big dilemma, trying to find a table to sit at, which may stem from my own personal anxiety, but nonetheless highlights the need for more dining tables and organization for a growing campus.
Dinner is best outsourced to places off the Bloomfield College campus like chinese takeout, subway, or the chicken shack. One vital staple of any dinner meal is the array of ice cream, which can often be seen as a meal saver. Along with the depressing salad bar, which is awkwardly built so when you want to get something you have to crouch down and plaster your face against the screen. The salad bar offers up 2 pasta options that are usually not kept fresh while still not actually cooked all the way through. Dinner options lack for those of the vegetation lifestyle, inexplicably no veggies except for some thin cut cucumbers and a spinach leaf to suffice a healthier alternative to the carb loaded cabinet. And even for those of us that find meat more comforting than veggies there are often few dishes that actually are edible let alone tasty. With leftover mashed potatoes and pumpkin pie that has been served straight for the past week, the salad bar is often a place to find a second chance for a meal along with infamous fruit water, which looks fancier than it actually tastes and is where it seems most thought is put into as to what fruit layer goes first.
Overall, compared to other campus settings, Bloomfield College is a smaller college therefore the dining services needs to be held to higher standards. Such as more rotation of meals and more prompt time changes in meal shifts from breakfast, lunch to dinner. Not only that but on the weekends, the dining hall is barely open which is unfair for students who, like myself, have class on Saturday morning and can't eat until much later in the day if they wish to choose the dining hall here at BC. Also, as a new student, it would be much appreciated if the dining hall would provide a schedule of hours of operation so I know when to come and wait for someone to swipe my card and be accused of stealing silverware everytime I leave the building with the daunting sign. Making it not really a dining hall at all but merely a dining hell located in the heart of Bloomfield College.
